landmark
Americannoun
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a prominent or conspicuous object on land that serves as a guide, especially to ships at sea or to travelers on a road; a distinguishing landscape feature marking a site or location.
The post office served as a landmark for locating the street to turn down.
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something used to mark the boundary of land.
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a building or other place that is of outstanding historical, aesthetic, or cultural importance, often declared as such and given a special status landmark designation, ordaining its preservation, by some authorizing organization.
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a significant or historic event, juncture, achievement, etc..
The court decision stands as a landmark in constitutional law.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a prominent or well-known object in or feature of a particular landscape
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an important or unique decision, event, fact, discovery, etc
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a boundary marker or signpost
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of landmark
before 1000; Middle English; Old English landmearc. See land, mark 1
Explanation
A landmark is anything that helps you know where you are — in space, in time, in history. If you’re sailing from Europe to New York, the Statue of Liberty will be the landmark that lets you know you’re in the right port. If you’re walking to your cousin’s house, the pizza shop on the corner is the landmark that lets you know you just have two blocks to go. Getting your driver’s license is a landmark event, as was the Revolutionary War — though which battle was harder is yours to determine.
Vocabulary lists containing landmark
50th Anniversary of the March on Washington: "Trying to Inspire a New Generation" by Trip Gabriel
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Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for January 15–January 21, 2022
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The United Nations said Wednesday that pledges towards closing the global digital divide had in just five years surpassed $100 billion, in what it hailed as a "landmark achievement".
From Barron's • Jul. 8, 2026
The new 6th Street Bridge, hailed as a civic landmark just steps away, was promptly stripped of its wiring by vandals and now sits pitch black at night.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 8, 2026
And just a few weeks ago, civil rights lawyers joined with parents’ and children’s advocates to bring landmark class-action litigation to end illegal family separations.
From Slate • Jul. 7, 2026
Living by the coast in Prestatyn in Denbighshire, Wales, he often sets a timer and picks a landmark to walk to.
From BBC • Jul. 3, 2026
But in 1929, Edwin Hubble made the landmark observation that wherever you look, distant galaxies are moving rapidly away from us.
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
